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HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Texas prison officials halted Tuesday night's scheduled execution of a former topless-club bouncer condemned for a double slaying almost 20 years ago as the clock ticked down on their deadline.

After winning a reprieve earlier in the day, Charles Dean Hood spent much of the evening in a cell not far from the death chamber as a flurry of appeals played out in the courts.

Shortly after 11 p.m., the U.S. Supreme Court rejected three appeals and Hood appeared headed to the death chamber. But prison officials faced with a midnight deadline to administer lethal drugs feared they could not follow the proper procedures before the execution warrant expired.

Gov. Rick Perry's office agreed with prison officials to allow the warrant to expire just before midnight Tuesday, meaning it would be at least another 30 days before Hood could be returned to the death house.

Appeals and reprieves
Hood initially won a reprieve just over an hour before he could have been put to death when State District Judge Curt Henderson lifted the death warrant. Hood cried tears of relief at the news.

Henderson's order set off a volley of appeals by prosecutors. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rescinded the order, saying Henderson didn't have the authority to withdraw the warrant that appeared to stop the punishment.

Hood, 38, was convicted of murder for the 1989 slayings of Ronald Williamson and Tracie Lynn Wallace at Williamson's home in the Dallas suburb of Plano.